Alternative night fighters for the air forces/services, 1939-45

tomo pauk said:

Use of 12 ft 2 in propellers from P-47 leaves 7/2= 3.5 in clearance vs. fuselage. To be extra safe, use a wider blade 12 ft dia unit (4.5in clearance)?

Click to expand...

The Ventra's had vibration problems, both with skin fracturing and with the engines (having your props vibrate is not a good thing for the engine in general and the reduction gears and nose casing are at hazard.)
Yes you can extend the wings (one of the commercial conversations of Ventura's did this) but again, the cheap and cheerful conversion of the A-20 winds up taking more money and effort. Besides, you may want a bigger wing root area to fit more fuel to feed the R-2800s.
It took a while but they did get 725US gallons into the A-20, yes you are not carrying bombs but the engines are over 300lbs heavier each (2 speed single stage) and with everything else
you just sucked up 1/2 the bomb load. getting into that 530-725 gal fuel area is going into the higher gross weight limits.
Leave the A-20 alone, just actually deploy it quicker, (Beat somebody in England with a cricket bat to stop the turbinlight program after the first airplane)

Put the .303s in the nose, shoot the bomber with bullets instead of light. In service in the summer of 1941.
The US didn't get a P-70 into service until 1943. Units sent to NA swapped their P-70s for Beaufighters before going into action.

PS, note where the props are in relation to cockpit/pilot. Pilot comfort was not a high priority in WW II but they started to pay attention to it.
BTW, initial requirements for the P-61 called for an 8 hour patrol.

The joys of production in 1939 to 1942 of Douglas designed twin engined light bombers. Engine wise 966 Pratt & Whitney R-1830 and 381 Wright R-2600 built in first 6 months of 1940, AANA = Air Arsenal North America)

The USAAF view, with help from others

FR-F-288, 100 DB-7 built by Douglas SM Q4/39 to March 1940, for France, last example exported in May 1940, serials Nos 1 to 100 (AANA contract dated 15 February 1939)

BR-F-271, 170 DB-7 built by Douglas SM April to December 1940, serials 101 to 270, first 32 to France (but 16 diverted to Britain), exported May and June 1940, rest to Britain, mostly July to September, and given RAF serials AE457 to AE472, AW392 to AW414, AX848 to AX851, AX910 to AX916, AX921 to AX930, BB890 to BB912, BD110 to BD126, BJ458 to BJ477, BJ485 to BJ501, BK882 to BK883, BL227 to BL228, BT460 to BT465, BV203 to BV203, DG554 to DG555, DK274 to DK277 (AANA contract dated 14 October 1939)

BR-F-294, 100 DB-7A built by Douglas SM November 1940 to April 1941 for Britain. (serials AH430 to AH529, AH430 crashed in US, not recorded in production reports, replaced by AH740) (AANA contract dated 20 October 1939)

AC-12967, 123 A-20A built by Douglas SM December 1940 to August 1941, for USAAF, also from this order 3 F-3, 1 XP-70 and 59 P-70. The P-70 produced April to September 1942, the F-3 April 1942 both types with R-2600-11 engines, A-20A engines R-2600-3, serials A-20A 39-721/734, XP-70 39-735, P-70 39-736/740, F-3 39-741, P-70 39-742/744, F-3 39-745, P-70 39-746/747, F-3 39-748, P-70 39-749/797, A-20A 40-071/179. (contract dated 30 June 1939)

S&A 04839, 1 BD-1 built by Douglas SM in December 1940, Order dated 7 October 1940, A-20A with Wright engines, USN says off AC-15948, which is where the 8 BD-2 come from and sort of explains the USAAF total of 999 aircraft on the order, time and model wise it is AC-12967

BR-A-87, 301 DB-7B built by Douglas SM April to November 1941, 6 to USAAF, rest to Britain, serials W8252 to W8401, Z2155 to Z2304 plus AH740 (AANA contract dated 20 February 1940)

AC-15093, 20 A-20A built by Douglas SM May to August 1941, for USAAF, serials 40-3143 to 3162, engines R-2600-3, (contract dated 14 June 1940)

BR-F-719, 240 DB-7B built by Douglas SM September 1941 to February 1942, 58 to USAAF, 117 to Britain, 47 to USSR, 18 or 20 to NEI, serials AL668 to AL907, engines GR2600-A5B-0. (To NEI AL887, AL889 to 907 built in November 1941, 17 exported January and February 1942, AL887, AL890 to 899, AL907 diverted to RAAF, several captured by Japan with AL904 reported flight tested, AL889, AL900, AL903, AL904 and AL906 reported "Los Angeles T 18 February", while AL896 and AL901 dropped by Las Vegas the same day, the USAAF delivery logs give makers and USAAF engine serial numbers which can help trace things) (AANA contract dated 8 May 1940)

BR-F-672, 240 DB-7B built by Boeing August 1941 to March 1942, 120 to USAAF, 42 to Britain, 67 to USSR, 11 to NEI, serials AL263 to AL502, engines R2600-A5B-0. (To NEI AL347, AL358, AL361 to 369, all diverted to RAAF, Douglas Boston) (AL485 to 487, AL489 to 499 retained by USAAF, marked DAAC 23 February 1942, Turbinlite Project, RAF Turbinlite aircraft deployed in July 1941) (AANA contract dated 18 May 1940)

AC-15948, 999 A-20B built by Douglas LB December 1941 to February 1943, 309 to USAAF in 1942, 8 as BD-2 to USN, most of rest to USSR, serials 41-2671 to 3669 (BD-2 41-2771 to 2778) engines R-2600-11 (contract dated 2 October 1940)

DA-2, 375 A-20C built by Douglas SM, December 1941 to April 1942 (plus 1 in August, 41-19340 kept by Douglas for radio mock up, student trainer), 95 USAAF, 280 Britain, serials 41-19088 to 19462, engines GR-2600-A5B-0 (contract dated 29 April 1941)

DA-1, 140 A-20C Built by Boeing January to March 1942, 21 to USAAF, 119 to USSR, serials 41-19589 to 19728, engines GR-2600-A5B-0 (contract dated 28 April 1941)

D-48/NI 41-124, 48 DB-7C built by Douglas SM May and June 1942, 1 to USAAF, 47 to USSR, or 48 to USSR, NEI serials D-6265 to 6312 (or DO-101 to 148), engines GR2600-A5B-0 (AANA contract dated October 1941)

DA-934, 433 A-20C-1 to C-10 built by Douglas SM, production beginning in August 1942, serials 42-32951 to 33383. (contract dated 10 February 1942)

Another few options for Luftwaffe:
- the Fw 187 with the raised cockpit area for better crew comfort and useful volume, sorta how the front end of the Sea Harrier gotten from the RAF's Harrier; a must is to install the proper engines instead of the Juo 210s
- Bf 109Z, with both fuselages 'populated', and with a bit bigger wings for a more forgiving low-speed behavior
- SM.79, rear cockpit for the radar operator (not the gunner), possibility of adding 3rd crew member in the second fuselage; trim the wings a bit
- SM.88 in it's original form (2-seater, size and shape of P-38)
- a host of other twin-fuselage fighters was also possible, the parts donor being He 112, or the Avia B.35/135 with the raised canopies, powered by better engines as war progresses
- MTT doing a good job on the Me 210 from the day one
- some French 2-engined A/C were not that big, should've been better with better engines, like HS 12Y on the Breguet 690 series (or go for the 697, the bigger sibling), as well as the ugly SNCASE Se.100
- IMAM Ro.67, but with just two engines
- IMAM Ro.58

To me, the Gloster F9/37 is the obvious option and was being developed as a night fighter called the "Reaper" before being cancelled by the AM for Gloster to focus on development of jet fighters.

After that, there are a number of Supermarine twins that were proposed like the type 327 that would do the trick,